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Little is known about the extent to which the age at which asthma first began influences respiratory health later in life. We conducted these analyses to examine the relationship between age at asthma onset and subsequent asthma-related outcomes.

Methods

We used data from 12,216 adults with asthma who participated in the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Asthma Call-back Survey to describe the distribution of age at asthma onset. Linear regression was used to estimate associations of age at asthma onset with asthma-related outcomes, including symptoms in the past 30 days and asthma-related emergency visits.

Results

Asthma onset before age 16 was reported by an estimated 42% of adults with active asthma, including 14% with onset at 5–9 years of age who reported experiencing any asthma symptoms on 21% of days in the past month. Compared to this group, the percentage of days in the past month with any asthma symptoms was 14.8% higher (95% confidence interval (CI): 5.4, 24.1) among those whose asthma onset occurred at <1 year. When age at onset occurred at 10 years or older there was little change in the prevalence of asthma-related emergency visits across age at onset categories.

Objectives : Nurses are at increased risk of occupational asthma, an observation that may be related to disinfectants exposure. Whether asthma history influences job type or job changes among nurses is unknown. We investigated this issue in a large c...

Background : The morbidity and mortality from asthma have markedly increased since the late 1970s. The hospitalization rate, an important marker of asthma severity, remains substantial. : Methods : In adults with health care access, we prospectively ...

Objective : Asthma self-management education improves asthma-related outcomes. We conducted this analysis to evaluate variation in the percentages of adults with active asthma reporting components of asthma self-management education by age at asthma ...

United States, Public Health Service., Office of the Surgeon General.. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.), Office on Smoking and Health..

Published:

2007

Description:

These excerpts from the 2006 Surgeon General’s report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, highlight the harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure on children. The text and tables that follow are drawn directly from...